European official decries separatist violence in eastern Ukraine

Pro-Russia gunmen block the regional police office in Luhansk, Ukraine, on Tuesday after fellow separatists seized another key administrative building in the city of 450,000.

Pro-Russia gunmen block the regional police office in Luhansk, Ukraine, on Tuesday after fellow separatists seized another key administrative building in the city of 450,000. (Zurab Kurtsikidze / European Pressphoto Agency)

Pro-Russia militants armed with clubs and bats take over Luhansk regional government office

Ukrainian mayor who was shot in the back is recovering after surgery at an Israeli hospital

As pro-Russia separatists clubbed their way into another regional government headquarters in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, a top official of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe appealed for restoration of the "rule of law" and the release of journalists and military observers detained by the militants.

CaptionCrisis in Ukraine

Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times

Separatist gunmen man one of the bases in front of the police station they captured this month in Slovyansk, Ukraine.

Separatist gunmen man one of the bases in front of the police station they captured this month in Slovyansk, Ukraine. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)

Police officers in civilian clothes were allowed to collect their files and documents from the police station that had been overtaken by separatist gunmen in Slovyansk, Ukraine.

Police officers in civilian clothes were allowed to collect their files and documents from the police station that had been overtaken by separatist gunmen in Slovyansk, Ukraine. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)

Seven military observers on a mission of the OSCE, a 58-member security alliance to which Russia and Ukraine both belong, are among the hostages seized by separatist gunmen in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk last week. The militants seeking independence from the government in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, are also holding at least two Ukrainian journalists, and two British television journalists were attacked by separatist protesters at a rally in Donetsk on Monday, said Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE media freedom chief.

"Impunity for assailants of journalists and broadcasters is escalating the tensions and contributing to the deterioration of the security situation," Mijatovic said in a statement from alliance headquarters in Vienna. "I am dismayed by the lack of response by the law enforcement authorities to these attacks. Rule of law must be reintroduced in Ukraine."

Mijatovic also denounced militant takeovers of regional broadcasting stations where Ukrainian programming has been cut off and replaced with Kremlin-controlled Russian newscasts.

Police and Interior Ministry forces have been ousted from their stations in about a dozen towns and cities in the turbulent eastern regions in the separatist actions that Kiev authorities contend are being instigated and directed from Moscow.

"Rule of law must be re-introduced in Ukraine"- Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE representative for media freedom

Russian media describe the militants occupying key government facilities in eastern Ukraine as "self-defense forces" or "pro-federalization" demonstrators seeking local referendums on independence from the Kiev government, and in some cases annexation to Russia.

In Kiev, Deputy Foreign Minister Danylo Lubkivsky repeated the government's accusation that the unrest was being directed by the Kremlin.

"They have no real political agenda. They have no political goals, and they have no intention of holding any dialogue. They simply execute orders from Russian authorities,” Lubkivsky said of the pro-Russia militants.

One of the eight "European military observers" detained by the pro-Russian activists was released on medical grounds. They justified their action by saying he was a Swedish national and his country is not in the Nato. The rest of the detainees would most likely be used for...

In one of the most brazen acts of violence plaguing eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes was shot in the back on Monday while exercising on the outskirts of Ukraine's second-largest city. Kernes, although a former ally of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, had refused to support the separatists trying to wrest the Kharkiv region from Ukraine. Kernes was reported by Israeli media to have been transferred to a hospital in Haifa, Israel, where he underwent surgery and was said to be in serious but stable condition Tuesday.

In Kiev, Ukrainian lawmakers met Tuesday and discussed the possibility of holding a nationwide referendum on whether Ukraine's governing structure should be revised to devolve more powers to the regions, but no consensus was reported.

Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose party has dominated the interim government and parliament since the Feb. 21 ouster of Yanukovich, warned fellow lawmakers against ceding too much authority to the regions and putting unity at risk.

"While we are giving authority to local administrative bodies, we are obliged -- under any circumstances -- not to lose authority over the country," Tymoshenko was quoted as telling the parliamentary session.

Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has discussed with eastern regional leaders proposed constitutional reforms to decentralize the government. But the lengthy and collaborative process for making such changes would clearly not be undertaken before the country's May 25 presidential election. Ukraine's interim leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government of seeking to disrupt the vote so that they can continue to claim Ukraine lacks an elected and legitimate leader.

OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier was in Kiev on Tuesday to meet with Ukrainian officials and diplomats from the alliance, which has multiple missions underway in the country. Zannier consulted with the Kiev-based coordinator of the Special Monitoring Mission deployed after Russia's military incursion into and annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, as well as with the head of the OSCE election observer delegation preparing for the presidential vote in less than five weeks.

A statement on Zannier's one-day visit was issued in Vienna but made no mention of progress in gaining release of or access to the detained military observers seized in Slovyansk on Friday.

Eight European military observers and five Ukrainian officers were stopped and detained entering Slovyansk by masked and armed men. One of the Europeans was released over the weekend because of a medical condition, but the rest remain in the gunmen's custody.

The monitors were deployed by OSCE to evaluate Kiev's report of unusual military activity in the region, as prescribed by the Vienna Document, to which both Russia and Ukraine are signatories and which is a cornerstone of European security doctrine in the post-Cold War era.

Ukraine's worst unrest since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union was sparked by ousted President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to scrap a deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he had pulled back troops from the border with Ukraine and called on Kremlin-allied separatists to delay a referendum on whether Ukraine's regions should have a greater degree of autonomy.

At least 14 people were killed and scores were wounded as government forces seeking to win back this eastern Ukrainian city from pro-Russia separatists ran into an ambush Monday set up by the rebel gunmen.

A crowd of more than 2,000 pro-Russia separatists on Sunday night seized one of the last key official sites in the eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk still in the hands of the country’s interim government.

Armed clashes left scores of people dead in Ukraine on Friday, as President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to impose stiffer economic sanctions on Russia if it disrupts Ukraine's upcoming election.